A. Field of the Invention
The invention is an easel to hold an artwork, such as a canvas or sketch pad. The invention is also a method of making the easel of the invention. The invention includes accessories for use with the easel, including a bench and a shelf.
B. Statement of the Related Art
Easels have been in use for many years to hold an artwork at a convenient height and orientation either for creation or display of an artwork. For the purposes of this document, the term ‘artwork’ means any creative work comprising matter applied to a substrate. As used in this document, the term ‘substrate’ means a canvas fabric stretched on a frame, paper, such as paper contained within a sketch book, wood, hardboard, tile, metal, or any other object that an artist may wish to support for the purpose of applying paint or other matter to the object to create the artwork. Easels are particularly useful for easel painting; namely, for supporting an artwork for the purpose of creative painting in any of several techniques, including but not limited to oils, tempura, gouache, watercolors and pastels.
Tripod easels are well known in the art. A tripod easel features three legs. The top ends of the legs are joined together. The bottom ends of the three legs are in a spaced apart relation to define the self-supporting tripod. The top end of the legs may be joined by a hinge about which one or more of the legs rotates, allowing the tripod easel to move between a first position in which the legs of the tripod easel do not define a self-supporting tripod and a second position in which all three of the legs are in a spaced-apart relation and in which the legs define a self-supporting tripod.
Display easels also have been used for many years to support completed artworks for display. A display easel may be a tripod easel.